The Case for International Sharing of Scientific Data A Focus on Developing Countries: Proceedings of a Symposium (2012) / Chapter Skim
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PART FIVE: HOW TO IMPROVE DATA ACCESS AND USE
PART FIVE: HOW TO IMPROVE DATA ACCESS AND USE
Pages 97-147
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From page 98... ...
UNESCO has a number of affiliated institutions, including our Category One Centers. The best known to this community is probably the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, but we also have an international hydrological education program in Delft, which is the world's largest postgraduate freshwater program, with 80 percent of the students coming from the developing world.
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From page 99... ...
One is our work on transboundary aquifers, which I am going to talk about later in terms of large-scale data challenges. The other one is a fascinating effort called SESAME (International Center for Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East)
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From page 100... ...
Some of the symposium speakers have stressed that universities are really the heart of healthy technological innovation ecosystems. We have a big focus on higher education in the developing world, and on mobilizing the popular understanding and support for science, such as science for parliamentarians, science journalism, and working with science museums, as well as programs that enhance participation of indigenous people.
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From page 101... ...
My second idea is to incorporate within our existing efforts on strengthening higher education a collaboration on developing capacity in data-intensive science in partner universities, especially in Africa. It should be very straightforward to integrate awareness-raising activities into some of our existing efforts, like our work with ICSU in preparation for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20)
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From page 102... ...
These ideas are important cornerstones in the foundation of all academies still and also for the International Council for Science (ICSU) , which has about 100 national members, most of them academies, as well as some international scientific unions.
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From page 103... ...
As Paul Uhlir pointed out in a 2010 essay in the CODATA Data Science Journal, there are still "information gulags," that is, large numbers of data resources in dark repositories; "intellectual straitjackets," exclusive property protection of data when not needed; as well as "memory holes," meaning that data once collected are often later destroyed or not conserved properly3. Existing data are most often not properly archived.
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From page 104... ...
All data obtained with publicly funded observatories should after proprietary periods be placed in public domain. In any new major astronomical construction project, the data processing, storage, migration and management requirements should be built in at an early stage in the project and budgeted along with other parts of the project.
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From page 105... ...
The experience at the International Science Programs at Uppsala University, which has been actively bridging between university science departments in the developing world and in the Nordic countries for 50 years, shows that much can be done to diminish the digital divide with patience and consistency. No doubt, astronomy is a simple example with a long tradition of international collaboration and openness.
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From page 106... ...
106 THE CASE FOR INTERNATIONAL SHARING OF SCIENTIFIC DATA Let me end with a quote that very appropriately is presented as an inscription on the Keck Building, 500 Fifth Street, N.W., where this meeting takes place: The right to search for truth implies also a duty; one must not conceal what one recognized to be true.
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From page 107... ...
I will speak about key issues raised during this 2-day symposium, but with a TWAS twist and a particular focus on broad-based problems faced by scientists in the developing world who are seeking to access scientific information and scientific data. A world-class technical library can be found on the campus of the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP)
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From page 108... ...
Two reports published recently indicated that the trends are positive for capacity building and access to scientific publications and scientific data collection in the developing world. These reports are the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO)
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From page 109... ...
Let me spend a few minutes now talking about TWAS, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World. Abdus Salam, the Nobel laureate from Pakistan, founded TWAS in 1983 in Trieste, Italy.
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From page 110... ...
This is happening, but it needs to happen on a broader and more extensive scale across the developing world. • Strategies for improving the management of indigenous databases.
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From page 111... ...
PART FIVE: HOW TO IMPROVE DATA ACCESS AND USE 111 They could also play a critical role in fulfilling the grand vision of Abdus Salam, creator of ICTP and TWAS, who often said in his writings and his speeches, "Scientific thought is the common heritage of mankind."
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From page 112... ...
Industry does play a large role in generating data, even publicly funded data, through this support of the scientific effort and through instrumentation. They are looking to make money, but I think it is important to realize that a lot of the sources of publicly funded data resources that have been built in recent years have come as a direct result of industry involvement in this part of the data cycle.
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From page 113... ...
NIST distributes this database with a nice interface, but some of the machine manufacturers have taken that product and added an analytical package on top of it, thus enhancing the value of that publicly funded data resource by making it a more important scientific and technological tool. Finally, one other way that industry very importantly involves itself in the data life cycle is by articulating new needs.
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From page 114... ...
As I already indicated, however, there are instances when they do generate data or do help the generation of data, which contributes considerably to publicly funded data resources.
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From page 115... ...
In Mozambique, for example, university-based intellectuals were at the forefront of protests to gain independence from the Portuguese government. At that time, African universities were at the vanguard of diverse indigenous groups that rationalized the need for the independence of African countries on the basis of the human rights to freedom and self-governance.
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From page 116... ...
THE ROLE OF KNOWLEDGE GENERATION INSTITUTIONS IN DATA PRODUCTION AND MANAGEMENT What are the typical roles of universities and other institutions that are engaged in research? I see such roles to be the following: • Supplier of options for sustainable development; • Producer of data for decision support systems; • Developer of human resources and capacity; • Creator of innovative ideas and products; and • Guardian of rationality and human rights.
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From page 117... ...
CONCLUSIONS Let me conclude by stating that the formation and operation of an African Research Foundation would greatly enhance the generation of data and other types of information for regional sustainable development. Such a Foundation should have the following mandate: • To support research for production of information, including data, for use in African sustainable development programs; • To provide an opportunity for engagement of African and other experts and the development of African talent (in Africa and the diaspora)
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From page 118... ...
in 2008. ICSU envisioned a global data system that would: • Emphasize the critical importance of data in global science activities; • Further ICSU strategic scientific outcomes by addressing pressing societal needs (e.g., sustainable development and the digital divide)
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From page 119... ...
I would like to conclude by noting that in September 2011 we will have the first World Data System conference in Kyoto, together with the WDS scientific committee meeting.
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From page 120... ...
More raw data are being produced today than can be physically stored, and this disparity will almost certainly increase very rapidly. Much has been accomplished by the libraries and information sciences communities over the past decade to establish basic principles, standards, object representations, descriptive metadata, and reference models needed to achieve interoperability, scalability, access, and long-term preservation and archiving of digital content.
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From page 121... ...
PART FIVE: HOW TO IMPROVE DATA ACCESS AND USE 121 unreadable within a few decades. This implies that policies for physical migration be established and followed.
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From page 122... ...
being a prime example. The legacy of the DLI Program continues as new interdisciplinary communities develop and use digital content and advanced information infrastructure and tools to probe new problem domains.
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From page 123... ...
The digital libraries community has been particularly instrumental. At the same time, there has been a general movement toward openness of internet based content and resources (when appropriate and legal)
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From page 124... ...
The manner in which this is done for digital content implies substantial and rapid change in established practices. This is being done already and new communities of practice are emerging that will continue to develop the means for confronting the ever-expanding volumes of data being created.
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From page 125... ...
At first glance, it seems that the next generation of researchers will share many similarities with the current generation of researchers whose roles they will take over in the future. Despite these similarities, it can be observed that the current generation of researchers has become the victim of a serial crisis arising from a toll-access system widely practiced by journal publishers.11 Apart from that, the rapid expansion of copyright protection and the introduction of sui generis database rights in the European Union and a few other countries, which took place during the era of the current generation of researchers, has resulted in almost all categories of research data becoming the property of either the researchers or the research institutions that employ the researchers, or the research agencies that fund the research.12 Research data, which contains a wealth of information is no longer freely accessible.13 11 See Open Access to Research Outputs: Final Report to RCUK, 2008, 21, available at |
From page 126... ...
is widely practiced, resulting in the tragedy of anticommons.14 While the current generation of researchers and the next generation of researchers may share many similarities, the current generation of researchers is seen as a generation deprived of their rights to access and reuse research data and scholarly information. It is therefore deemed important to ensure that the next generation of researchers will not suffer the same disadvantages as their predecessors.
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From page 127... ...
argued that e-Science and e-Research collaborations are not only about access to secondary resources such as scientific articles, or to primary resources such as databanks, but also to openness in tool development and the sharing of software code to extend and modify tools.26 As most research data are protected under a copyright or database-right legal regime, opening up the rights to access and reuse research data will form a big part of the emerging infrastructure for globally organized collaborative research activities. The need to open up the rights to access and reuse research data also arises from conventional research libraries and the traditional publishing system not being well suited to the need of the next generation of researchers, who will require not only access to the latest research data but also the ability to communicate their research results as quickly as possible.
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From page 128... ...
; Treaty on Access to Knowledge, 2005, available at |
From page 129... ...
This may be to avoid discrimination, personal embarrassment, or damage to their personal or professional reputation.37 Hence, the data providers must make an important distinction between research data collected on human subjects and research data on other impersonal subjects. While research data that describes natural phenomena has a low degree of sensitivity, research data that describes humans, their activities, opinions, or behaviors may pose a high degree of sensitivity.38 The next generation of researchers as data providers also has the responsibility to ensure that the research data they provide to others will not prejudice national interest and security.39 In the McKinsey report on big data, it was stated that data access can expose not only personal information and confidential corporate information but even national security and secrets.40 Schaffer argued that advocates of open access are not proposing that institutions allow unfettered access to sensitive data that could place the security of a nation or the world at risk.41 Although the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
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From page 130... ...
Since data owners still retain their rights to control use and reuse of research data, the next generation of researchers has the responsibility to ensure that they do not reuse the research data beyond the permitted rights given by data owners.53 In the absence of explicit permission from data owners, the data users should access and reuse the research data within the scope of legitimate use provided under the fair use or fair dealing exceptions under copyright law, which permit certain uses without the need to obtain permission from data owners. If data users need to access and reuse research data outside the scope of legitimate use provided under the fair use or fair dealing exceptions, permission must be obtained by data users from data owners.54 In this regard, permission to access and reuse research data are subject to different licensing arrangements that require separate negotiations between data owners and data users.
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From page 131... ...
Scientific and Technical Information Processing 269; Brian Fitzgerald, Anne Fitzgerald, Professor Mark Perry, Scott Kiel-Chisholm, Erin Driscoll, Dilan Thampapillai, Jessica Coates, 2008, Creating a legal framework for copyright management of open access within the Australian academic and research sector, in Brian Fitzgerald, ed., Legal Framework for e-Research (Sydney University Press, Sydney) 283; Peter Arzberger et al., 2004, An international framework to promote access to data, 303 Science 1777; Anne Fitzgerald, Brian Fitzgerald, and Kylie Pappalardo, 2009, The future of data policy, in Tony Hey, Stewart Tansley, and Kristin Tolle, eds., The Fourth Paradigm: Data-Intensive Scientific Discovery (Microsoft Research, Redmond, Washington)
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From page 132... ...
The statistical solutions involved data alteration, while the technical solutions involve restricted access to research data.66 Data access and reuse policy may also require the adoption of special licensing agreements for access to confidential data in order to balance the need for data access with confidentiality protection.67 The Responsibility to Protect the Informational Privacy of Data Subjects Data access and reuse policy should find a way to balance the rights to access and reuse research data with the protection of informational privacy.68 As part of the balance between data access and data protection of informational privacy, the U.S. Privacy Protection Study Commission proposed that personal information not be disclosed to a third party in an individually identifiable form.69 It was suggested in the report that in most cases, omitting identifiers, such as name, address, telephone number, and subject identification number, is enough to protect the anonymity of research participants.70 Similarly the U.S.
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From page 133... ...
National Academies' Committee on Ensuring the Utility and Integrity of Research Data in the Digital Age, research data pertaining to intelligence and military or terrorist activities should not be shared by researchers for security reasons.76 Research related to nuclear, radiological, and biological threats; chemicals and explosives; human and agricultural health systems; and information technology infrastructure may also contain data that is the subject of national interests and security.77 The Responsibility to Ensure Data Quality and Accuracy To ensure data quality and accuracy, data access and reuse policy should require data providers to actively supply and complete information about the research data provided.78 If nonreviewed or nonverified research data are allowed to be shared for access and reuse, the data access and reuse policy should require data providers to warn or to notify data users of the quality and accuracy of research data. In the United States, the Office of Management and Budget's 2002 Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by Federal Agencies (OMB Guidelines)
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From page 134... ...
While the next generation of researchers require the right to access and reuse research data to be opened, the restrictive scope of legitimate use under fair use or fair dealing exceptions under copyright law could prevent data users from exploiting the full value and potential of research data.80 For the purpose of opening up the rights to access and reuse research data, it was argued by Graham Greenleaf that the rights to access and reuse the research data given by data owners should be more extensive and beyond fair use or fair dealing exceptions offered by the copyright law.81 For Uhlir and Schroder, open access in the context of public research data should be interpreted as access on equal terms for the international research community, as well as industry, with the fewest restrictions on reuse.82 This could well mean that the next generation of researchers should be given broad rights to access and reuse research data, including for profit, industrial, commercial, or nonacademic research purposes. The Responsibility to Obtain Permission to Access and Reuse Research Data One of the critical aspects in opening up the rights to access and reuse research data are to ensure that the rights are not only given to the first user but that they remain freely accessible and usable by downstream users.83 In granting the rights to access and reuse data, data owners can choose from a wide range of licensing conditions, from the widest possible license to the narrowest form of licensing.84 If data users have to enter into licensing or assignment contracts with data owners each time they require access to and reuse of research data, the progress of research will be retarded and transaction cost for data access will be high.85 Even when the rights to access and reuse is granted by data owners by way of licensing, the copyright licensing mechanism is said to be time-consuming, and not well suited to the digital environment.
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From page 135... ...
This allows the data to be widely shared and used, but also preserves the creator's right to attribution.87 The Responsibility Not to Infringe on Data Creators' Moral Rights To open up the rights to access and reuse research data for the next generation of researchers, the moral right of integrity should be construed in such a way as to ensure that the personal interests of authors do not interfere with the legitimate self-expression of future authors.88 Data access and reuse policy should provide guidelines about what sort of acts are considered as infringing on data creators' moral rights. To this end, there should be clear guidelines about the reasonable circumstances that allow alteration or modification of the research data without being construed as an infringement of data creators' moral rights of integrity.
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From page 136... ...
17, 28. Australian Research Information Infrastructure Committee, Open Access Statement (2004)
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From page 137... ...
22. Christie, Andrew F., et al., Analysis of the Legal Framework for Patent Ownership in Publicly Funded Research Institutions (Commonwealth of Australia Department of Education, Science and Training, 2003)
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From page 138... ...
161. Fitzgerald, Brian, Anne Fitzgerald, Professor Mark Perry, Scott Kiel-Chisholm, Erin Driscoll, Dilan Thampapillai, Jessica Coates, Creating a legal framework for copyright management of open access within the Australian academic and research sector, in Brian Fitzgerald (ed.)
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From page 139... ...
International Seminar on Open Access for Developing Countries, Salvador Declaration on Open Access: The Developing World Perspective (2005) , available at |
From page 140... ...
, Personal Privacy in an Information Society: The Report of the Privacy Protection Study Commission (1977)
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From page 141... ...
, available at |
From page 142... ...
. Uhlir, Paul, and Peter Schroder, Open data for global science, in Brian Fitzgerald (ed.)
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From page 143... ...
Our hope is that we can develop South-South cooperation networks, not just in publication output but also in projects that have impact on the ground, and do that by allowing the advancing countries in the South to take the lead in South-South partnerships. One of the critical questions or issues that TWAS is examining is whether countries like China, Brazil, and India will find greater reason to ally with the United States and Europe than with other countries in the developing world.
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From page 144... ...
However, the decision made by your organization is violating the same principles that you are trying to defend. It is hard to accept that the Israeli academics are proponents of such restrictions." These examples show that as we engage in collaborations and communications with our colleagues abroad, we become aware of incidents like this (human rights violations, academic freedom violations)
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From page 145... ...
DR. GRIFFIN: I can only speak from the experience of the digital libraries initiatives.
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From page 146... ...
146 THE CASE FOR INTERNATIONAL SHARING OF SCIENTIFIC DATA while South Africa, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, and perhaps Nigeria can have the support systems to help themselves, there are many other countries that are just too poor to support themselves. They do not necessarily see investment in science as something important.
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